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April 2008 Winner

April 2008 Winner

Congratulations to Chris Karaktin of South Side High School in Rockville Centre. He was nominated by his student, Jackie Northacker, for Newsday's Teacher of the Month Award. Here's what his student Jackie had to say about him:

"Our school is a participant in the IB program. It's a rigorous two year curriculum lasting from Junior to Senior year. Mr. K as we call him, is my IB Visual Arts teacher and has been the reason why I've grown to love art so much. Every project for the past two years he has helped me expand ideas, give me feedback thats honest and helpful, worked with me and his other students (who are in IB and also his advanced painting and drawing students) patiently after school even on Fridays till 5PM finishing our research books that are due with our pieces. His devotion to his students is admirable as he spends countless hours on his weekends grading research books which often contain 10-20 pages of visuals, research of artists, and critiques. He has provided me the knowledge of so many artists that I never would of heard of and I speak for all his students when I say he truly has made a mark on my life. He spends a lot of money on books to let his students use, work from, and do research on, trusting us to take them home to study as well. Recently since it's the close of our senior year we have an IB Visual Arts examination of all our pieces from the past two years as well as our books which we have done intense research and visual drawings/paintings. He copied every IB senior's books consisting of our best twenty pages on his own time, as well as photographing every piece we have done in the past two years. He developed the photos with his own money and spent many hours of his free time preparing us for our examinations this spring. His dedication to art astonishes me and he really pushes his students to try their best. I have seen people who can barely draw stick figures, paint pieces which are beautiful and unique. Through all of our whining and complaining about due dates and how our pieces don't look great to us he always is there with a smile and advice to make our pieces work. His calm young attitude with the students really helps as well as I feel like I can talk to him about anything and he will always be there to help me out. I can't even count how many students feel this way about him, he truly is a great asset to our high school. He has inspired so many to pursue art school, and recently a student who graduated in 2003 is back as a student teacher under his wing. He deserves to be recognized because his dedication to his work and students is a rarity now in schools, and I'm so very thankful that he has been my teacher for the past two years. His love for art really seeps into his students and his passion is now mine as well which is a gift I'm always going to treasure."

Well done, Mr. Karaktin! Thank you for providing excellence in education!